Schools will face a shortage of maths and English teachers next year, new figures reveal. They show a dramatic drop in the number of teacher trainee applicants.

The number of applicants to start postgraduate teacher training for primary and secondary schools this September has fallen by 9% compared with this time last year, the figures show.

The most dramatic falls are in physics (30%), maths and English (15%), information and communications technology (16%) and geography (14%).

There are only 896 applicants in maths, compared with 1,056 last year and 1,125 in 2006. The number wanting to train as physics teachers dropped from 185 in 2007 to 129, according to the figures produced by Professor John Howson at consultants Education Data Surveys.

The number of applicants to train in modern foreign languages fell to 588 this year from 620 in 2007 and 858 the year before. This will put increasing pressure on all schools, particularly primaries, which are legally obliged to teach all children a language by 2010.

But there are significantly more applicants in drama, music and social studies.

Fewer teachers need to be trained, because secondary school rolls are falling, and the recruitment round is only half over. But Howson said key subjects would miss even the reduced targets set by the government unless recruitment is increased dramatically.

He said: "Unless graduate demand elsewhere in the economy experiences a downturn, it is difficult to see how all teacher training places will be filled this year. Any failure will impact on schools in the summer of 2009.

"It may be that graduates now prefer employment-based courses or initiatives such as Teach First, where they can be paid a salary while training, rather than experiencing yet another year as a student."

He said Wales and Scotland had seen similar falls in applications.

The decline in the number of physics and maths teachers is part of a long-term trend which prompted the government to offer incentives including £5,000 "golden hellos" to entice more top graduates into teaching. This year's acceleration of that decline will frustrate the government.

It follows dramatic drops in the number of students taking maths A-level after unpopular curriculum reforms in 2000. Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, suggested the decline in graduates applying for teacher training in those subjects could be the continued fallout. "We're in an odd situation where the knowledge that it's quite tough to get jobs in some areas means fewer people are applying. Apart from obvious shortage subjects such as mathematics there's misinformation that there are too many teachers in some areas," he said.

The shadow schools minister, Nick Gibb, said: "It is vital that children get a good grasp of the core subjects like English and maths so they can go on to study further or get the job they want."

A spokesman for the Training and Development Agency for Schools said it was too early to draw firm conclusions about recruitment. "It is best not to draw conclusions from the first set of figures on applications," he said. "Overall, the trend is within expectations."